


The Prince and The Knight

by starrynightwrt



Series: Arja Hamdan-Zulham [2]
Category: Bumilangit Cinematic Universe, Gundala (2019)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, also i think my grammar’s a mess, bedtime story, ganda hamdan is father of the year, read; Arya, this is by far the hardest to write, warning for those with history of high blood sugar count
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 14:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21076547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrynightwrt/pseuds/starrynightwrt
Summary: One night before they went to bed, the Knight found his prince kneeling by the bed, a box of ring in his hand.





	The Prince and The Knight

"Papa!"

The sound echoed on the long hallway of Hamdan-Zulham's residence. Both of them immediately woke up from the sudden calling, but to be fair, none of them had actually fallen into a deep sleep anyway. Not that it was on their control to do so. They would probably fall into a deep 12 years slumber if only they could.

The last few nights had been rough, that was one way to put it. Few days ago, Arja came home with an empty eyes and pale face, apparently, one of her friends had taken the liberty of using the show and tell session in class as a platform to tell his classmates about a ghost story. His story wasn't particularly scary in any way, the boy was 6 for god sakes, he couldn't even form a comprehensive sentence even if he wanted to. But, for some reason, the story stuck with Arja for the rest of the day. She couldn't stop thinking about it and her brain started running wild with all sorts of imaginations. 

Since then, Arja had been having nightmares every night. She would wake up numerous times throughout the night, crying, and screaming for her fathers. Ganda and Ghazul couldn't really do much since, well, there wasn't much they could do about it other than hoping that the nightmares would eventually fade away. They hadn't been getting any good sleep for the past couple of days, taking their turn calming Arja down every couple of hours.

"Ganda, anakmu, tuh," Ghazul whispered, nudging Ganda on the foot.

Ganda reluctantly opened his eyes, his first gaze caught the alarm clock on the nightstand; 01.00. "Sebelum jam 2 pagi masih anakmu," he answered, recalling the shift they had previously established.

"Tapi dia mintanya kamu," Ghazul simply replied. Arja's cry started getting increasingly louder.

"Ganda."

Ganda wasn't pleased, he stayed still, refusing to get up.

"Ganda, dia minta papanya, bukan ayahnya. Bangun, _ sungkan _sama tetangga kalau Arja nangis terus."

Ghazul made quite a point.

Ganda rolled his eyes, forcing his body to sit up, still wasn't pleased with the sudden change in arrangements, "_ next one _ kamu yang urus," he said before leaving the room.

…

Arja was now curled up inside Ganda arm, leaning against her father's broad chest. Ganda stroke the girl's hair slowly, humming an old lullaby that suddenly popped up in his head, trying to calm his daughter down. 

This was always the routine. Either Ganda or Ghazul would come to Arja's room after a nightmare. They would turn on the light, scoot next to Arja's on the bed, held her in their arms, and just whispered lullabies to calm her down, few minutes later Arja would eventually fell into sleep.

But tonight was different.

“Papa,” Arja whispered without looking up, “cerita.”

Ganda involuntarily scrunched his eyebrows, “cerita apa?”

“Apa aja.”

Ganda went silent for a second, trying to come up with any familiar bedtime stories from the top of his head. But the result was none, he couldn’t remember anything. Still stroking Arja’s hair, Ganda eventually got the thought of improvising, an idea came into mind.

“Oke,” Ganda shift his position a bit, trying to get comfortable, “ini adalah kisah seorang Pangeran dan Ksatria.”

** _There was once a prince who lived in a faraway kingdom with his evil father, the King. The prince's mother had died giving birth to him and for some reason, the King had him believed that he was the reason his mother died. All of his father laments about this made him think that he no longer deserve love from anyone. So he stopped striving for affection, and move on to the next closest thing; his father’s validation._ **

** _The prince had since become a faithful shadow to his father, he had done everything his father said, despite all of its consequences, for one reason; to redeem himself of a crime he didn’t commit._ **

** _All of his ambitions and desires were of his father's request. He never once thought about himself; his passions, his dreams, not even his wills. _ **

** _Until one day, when his father asked him to go down to the armory, his path crossed with a noble knight. _ **

** _Well, the knight himself certainly didn’t think of himself as a particularly noble person. This knight were known and greatly admired as the one warrior who single handedly wield his sword and ran head first into battle last winter. He had been given all sorts of medals and appreciation for his bravery but, still, all of those killings that he had done will haunt him ‘til the end of days. He had built his life upon someone else’s, he just didn’t think that was something he should take pride in._ **

** _Just like the prince, he really thought that due to all his actions, no one should ever love him._ **

** _Neither of them had believed in the term of true love, let alone ‘love at first sight’. Until that day._ **

Ganda paused his words for a bit, arranging the next sentences in his head.

“Lalu?” Arja asked impatiently.

** _It was indeed love at first sight. _ **

Arja smiled.

** _They were made for each other; they were perfect. For the first time in forever, the prince had felt what it's like to have his own desires. And the knight had realised that there was more to his life than just a series of cold blooded murders._ **

** _Over the course of time they grew fonder and fonder of one another. They learned what it meant to be human, they learned how to love and to be loved. All of their walls were torn down and they were exposed, but for some reason they have never felt safer. _ **

Ganda felt Arja’s grip on his shirt had gotten tighter, but it wasn’t because she was still scared, it was because she craved his warmth and had grown more curious about the story. She was looking up at him, eyes wide and awake. Ganda pulled a blanket from the foot of the bed to cover both of them before resuming, 

** _The prince couldn’t risk his father finding out about him and the Knight, so they decided to run away from the kingdom. Leaving every bits of their previous life to build a new one, together._ **

** _One night before they went to bed, the Knight found his prince kneeling by the bed, a box of ring in his hand. The prince said,_ **

Ganda closed his eyes, trying to remember that night, recalling every single words that Ghazul said when he proposed.

** _“I may not be wise and I’m not gonna be the one to save the day but, look in my eyes, and know this; today I’m making a commitment, to you, and to the rest of our future, that no matter how bad things get, I will always be there for you whether or not your gonna say yes. I love you more and more each day. And I don’t think I will ever be able to stop.”_ **

“Lalu, mereka menikah?” Arja asked, impatiently, “_ kayak _papa sama ayah?”

Ganda smiled softly, “ya, mereka menikah dan akhirnya mereka punya seorang putri.”

Arja’s eyes widened in excitement, those innocent yet intense gaze, look very much like Ghazul’s. “Siapa namanya?”

Ganda planted a kiss on Arja’s forehead, “Arja Hamdan-Zulham.”

  



End file.
